Workshop in Storm Abigail

A blustery one and a half day workshop for my client this weekend during Storm Abigail. A stoic chap from Sussex who'd been mountaineering and trekking in places such as the Andes and the Atlas Mountains.

Saturday was in Dartmoor in the steep hanging valley gorge of the Venford Brook for the morning.

Great shelter from the wild winds,though it was hard to stand up by the time we scrambled out at lunchtime!

Even the local cattle had stepped over the brink of the steep valley to get some shelter.

Lunch at the Church House Inn (at Holne) with it's roaring fire was a welcome escape for a while

and a chance to discuss his morning's photographs. Back out into the wild after lunch for some wanderings along the O Brook.

Compsoing in the incessant rain beside the O Brook on Dartmoor, which was in spate.

Someone had decided to wild camp on a high bank for the weekend and she was

rather suprised to see us there with camera gear in such weather, we were rather suprised to see their tent!

Sunday morning was spent at wandering about Sharp Tor, Starehole Bay and Bolt Head

in the South Devon AONB. Wild squally winds but some relatively calmer lulls and the odd but rewarding brief burst of transient light. The area has a wealth of opportunities for great photos in all weathers from inner landscapes to the vast views of the rugged cliffs and vales with their dramatic geology from the Variscan Orgeny aeons ago. The area was rich in late autumnal tones. Sublime coast looked after by the National Trust.

Looking out to sea from Sharp Tor (Salcombe) towards some distant pockets of transient light on the ocean

'Bad weather' gave opportunities for a series of moody and characterful photos for him.

He went away with a set of great images and said he'd had a great workshop.

I have a policy of waiting to be asked to demonstrate compositions / techniques on my own camera during the photography workshops I run - as I see the point of my tutoring being to facilitate the clients to get to grips with their own skills / creative development with their camera.

I did however get invited over this weekend to do some and made a handful of photos:

One was a long exposure ‪‎'ICM' (intentional camera movement)‬ abstract of some falls on the O Brook, it was an epic flow rate and the winds made for some interesting motion of the branches and ferns, a Turner inspired composition!

'Tears of Abigail'

In addition I made a couple up at Sharp Tor (Salcombe) to demonstrate a couple of learning points on energy within a picture and the 'digital zone system'.

The Baltic Exchange III (Tamar Class) RNLI Lifeboat racing out to sea on exercise below the soaring and autumnally cloaked cliffs of Sharp Tor at Salcombe.

Looking out to sea from one of the promontories of Sharp Tor in one of the rare brighter moments of the weekend.

"Thank you very much for a great weekend, I thoroughly enjoyed the workshop even with the bad weather, I feel I have got out of it what I was hoping, a better understanding of my camera and more confidence to hopefully create some good images in the future"